Somerset County Tourism Staff put together an awesome winter “passport” activity booklet. It included 9 places in Somerset County to go and visit from craft beverages, activities, and even a museum. If you visited 5 of the locations you would get a pint glass and if you collected all 9 stamps you received a hoodie.
As someone who missed their first edition last summer I couldn’t wait to begin. We had previously been to a few of the locations, but we were happy to return and looked forward to the ones we hadn’t been too. I’ve been meaning to go to Iron Peaks for months! Now with this passport, I had no more excuses not to go. I spread the word to my friends and we hit the ground running.
To get a passport you just needed to visit any of the locations and they would give you a copy and stamp it. I also loved that the passport had other ideas of what to do in the area, so if you weren’t familiar they had more suggestions close by.
You can easily do most things in the passport over the weekend, a few days, or spread out the joy throughout the month. We knocked out 5 locations the first day, but didn’t get to the next 4 until the end of the month! Our order was: Flounder Brewing, Bellemara Distillery, Village Brewing, Ultimate Xscape Rooms, Jersey Cyclone Brewing (Day 1), Burnt Mills Cider, Stumpy’s Hatchet House (Day 2), and Iron Peak Sports, and United States Golf Association Museum (Day 3).
Flounder Brewing and Bellemara Distillery are super convenient to knock out together because they are right next door to each other (Hillsborough)! We’ve been to Flounders before and for someone who doesn’t quite love beer, I love anything I try from them. The barn tasting room sets for an amazing atmosphere to sit around and enjoy. They are kid/pet friendly, you can bring your own food, and they have board games on site to borrow and play. Our favorite was the Expresso Brown Ale.
Bellemara Distillery has developed its menu since the last time we went (a long time ago) and we were surprised by how much more was available. They have some prepackaged snacks to pick from, a seasonal menu, and hot cocktails. I don’t have one particular item to recommended, but I would take anything from their Botanical Gin, Tonic, Spirit, and Soda Menu.
Ultimate Xscape Room and Village Brewing are both located in Somerville so another two locations easy to hit. We did make sure to book reservations for Ultimate Xscape Room a week before. As we had time before our reservation we hit Village Brewing first. They have beer, cocktails, wine, and liquor options for liquid choices and a food menu available. We liked that their food menu is clearly labeled with Vegan and Gluten Free annotations. Our small plate recommendation are the generals cauliflower bites.
Ultimate Xscape Room was a block walk from Village Brewing. They currently have two available rooms to pick from Thomas Edison’s Secret Laboratory and Dragon Castle. We opted for Dragon Castle which turned out to be Game of Thrones themed. Even though all of us in attendance were fans, knowing the books or show wouldn’t help solve anything in the room. I’m proud to say we were able to escape by collecting all three eggs and we had time left to spare (8 minutes). We also found out that they have a room under renovation and would be Harry Potter themed! Beyond ecstatic for this, it plans on opening summer of 2023, and you bet we will be signing up for that room.
We finished up day one at Jersey Cyclone Brewing, but when we arrived they were packed and at max capacity! The day we went they just released their One Starry Night, had a live band, and wasn’t expecting the crowd. We ordered to go, but we still had a great customer service. It was easy to order, they stamped our passports, and with this being our 5th location we picked up our Sip and See pint glass as well. We will have to make another pit stop here sometime soon.
As I mentioned earlier, I’m not one for beer, but cider is my jam(aside from bottomless mimosas)! Burnt Mills Cider in Bedminster is the place to be. They have a great plot of land to spread out a blanket, bask in the sun, and have a refreshing cider. On weekends they tend to have rotating food trucks on site. Trying to refrain from naming all of their ciders as a recommendation I narrowed it down to two: pineapple and black currant. If you still can’t decide order a flight or the box to be able to sample all flavors on tap! Please share with a friend or two.
Stumpy’s Hatchet House is located in Green Brook on Route 22. We’ve always drove past it, but never went. We ended up going on Saint Patrick’s Day, they had a Glow Event, and had black lights scattered. There is no stress reliever that’s like throwing hatchets all night and a great arm/shoulder work out! The venue was much bigger than I thought, decorated to theme well, and had giant games like Jenga and Connect Four to also play! If you want a party, this is a place to go to.
Iron Peaks Sports Complex is located in Hillsborough and we ended up driving past Flounders and Bellemara to get there. No, we didn’t make a pit stop, we were focused on the adventure that awaited us at Iron Peaks. We reserved a two hour block for their cliffhanger package. It included access to the ninja warrior course, aerial ropes course, and their climbing zone. We couldn’t do much on the ninja warrior course, none of us had the vertical jumps/ups to reach the obstacles. The aerial ropes course was fun with a variety of obstacles to overcome and the clips were designed in a way to easily understand and move. Our favorite part was the climbing zone. They had a bunch of different fun themed walls to climb, two climbs made up of ginormous shapes, a ladder climb that you can try to jump to reach either a hanging bar or a punching bag, and the best vertical pillars that just get higher with each pillar you step to (green pillars in the pictured below).
And our last stop the United States Golf Association Museum located in Liberty Corner/Far Hills on GPS. For as long as I have been driving home South on 287 I’ve seen the sign that says Golf Museum, but I remained clueless to what it was. Now, I can say I’ve been there! The museum itself is nicely laid out and more extensive than I thought. I did enjoy rooms that focused on women in golf and golf during the wars. Unbeknownst to us, the museum is home of the foremost collected golf memorobilia and artifacts! For a small fee aside from the museum entrance you do gain access to the Pines Putting Course. Upon completion of the 9 holes you get a souvenir golf ball.
The staff at the Somerset Tourism Office have been great throughout our journey. They’ve been so fast to reply back for any questions, liked all of my social media posts, and were willingly to drop off the hoodies at any of the locations for an easy pick up. I definitely will be looking for the next edition of the passport. Crossing my fingers for a summer version with a tank top and new places to try out…although I wouldn’t complain about returning to any of these places! Our next adventure awaits!
Capsule Customs Travel 